The Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March (15 page)

Despite the drastic reduction in royal revenues, King Edward was sympathetic to Roger’s situation in Ireland. Just before his defeat at Kells, the king had ordered an inquisition into his debts to the Crown, freezing them until the following Easter. The king was not to know that his gesture came too late to help Roger in Ireland: he only learnt that when Roger himself returned to England and came to court, in January 1316.

Roger’s purpose in returning was to report on the state of Ireland and to ask for military assistance. It was his intention to return straightaway
and resume the fight against Bruce. In respect of this Edward issued a special writ to him on 17 January requesting he attend Parliament, but only ‘if he had not yet returned to Ireland’.
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Edward’s reason for asking him to stay and attend was because of his need of support in England. Not just against the Earl of Lancaster, but against the many rebels taking arms now in this time of deprivation.

Roger obeyed the summons. He, with the earls, prelates and the king, met in a chamber of a house belonging to the Dean of Lincoln. Edward announced that he wished Parliament to conduct its proceedings speedily, so as to lessen the burden of providing food on the city and locality. But the Earl of Lancaster had not yet arrived. He did not do so until 12 February, two weeks late.

This delay had been costly. The important business of the parliament, as Lancaster well knew, was to discuss the state of the famine-struck country. People were starving to death. The Scots had torn apart the northern counties, so that manors were disappearing under the combined terrors of starvation and extortion. In the north even loyal English lords had taken to organised robbery to keep their retainers satisfied. If Robert Bruce could ravage the country and be allowed to get away with it, they reasoned, they might as well take what they could from their neighbours before Bruce did. In Wales the plight of the people was just as extreme. But there they had found a leader who not only inspired them, he inspired his enemies too. His name was Llywelyn Bren.

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When the Earl of Gloucester had perished beneath the spears and axes of the Scots at Bannockburn, he left the country with a great problem. He had no heir, and, despite his wife desperately claiming she was pregnant, none was forthcoming. The dilemma lay in the fact that his earldom was the richest single lordship in the country, worth about £7,000 per annum, and his income was second only to that of the combined five earldoms of Thomas of Lancaster. Even after the dower lands had been counted off, and the lands which his father had granted as annuities or gifts to his men, there was still more than £4,000 per annum left to be partitioned between his three sisters and their husbands. For the people of Glamorgan, however, his death meant that their lands were taken into custody while negotiations for the ultimate dispersal of the estate took place. With no lord, with no local administration, the lordship of Clare, including the great Marcher lordship of Glamorgan, was left in the hands of a series of royal administrators. These could be cold men, like Ingelram de Berengar, who regarded his role as having to contain the Welsh of
Glamorgan through force of arms, or they could be more judicious lords, like Bartholomew de Badlesmere, whose policy was more sympathetic to local grievances. But in July 1315, when the animals started dying in the fields, and when the suffering of the people was greatly on the increase, Bartholomew de Badlesmere was removed from office and the administration of Glamorgan was placed in the hands of Payn de Turberville.

It was a decision which had terrible consequences. De Turberville’s policy towards the suffering Welsh was to beat out of the people what money he could to swell the royal coffers. Bartholomew de Badlesmere’s careful alliances and considerate grants were ignored. Most importantly, those middlemen who had effected de Badlesmere’s policy were dismissed, and replaced with de Turberville’s instruments. Any Welshmen holding office were also dismissed as a matter of course. The most prominent of these Welshmen was Llywelyn Bren.

Bren
means ‘royal’. The epithet was given to him as a mark of respect, not just as a mark of distinguished ancestry. His proper name was Llywelyn ap Gruffydd ap Rhys, his father being one of the warriors who fought in defence of Prince Llywelyn, the last free prince of Wales. Llywelyn Bren himself was lord of Senghennydd, and a favoured sub-lord of the dead Earl of Gloucester. Even the English chroniclers, normally biased, describe him with respect. ‘A great man and powerful in his own country,’ wrote one.
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His greatness imparted a sense of duty to his people. In 1315, with de Turberville persecuting the Welsh of Glamorgan, and taking arms against the people of Senghennydd itself, he could not ignore his countrymen’s plight. As a result, de Turberville accused him of sedition. Llywelyn did the only thing he could: he appealed to the king. He told Edward what troubles his people were suffering, and how they needed relief from the king’s self-interested officer. But Edward was not in a mood to listen, and, with a stunning lack of consideration or forethought, ordered Llywelyn to appear before Parliament to face a charge of treason. Edward also promised him that, if de Turberville’s charge was true, Llewelyn would be hanged. Shocked, Llywelyn took himself back to his estates to prepare for war.

On 28 January, as Parliament gathered in the chamber of the dean’s house at Lincoln, the Sheriff of Glamorgan was attending a sitting of a court outside the walls of Caerphilly Castle. As the voices cut through the chill air, the sheriff and the court became aware that they were being surrounded. Gradually a huge number of armed Welshmen appeared around them. For those at the court it was too late. In vain they tried to retreat into the castle. Before they could do so the portcullises came down and the drawbridge was raised. The sheriff’s men were slain in the outer
bailey of the castle, which was then set alight. The inner castle itself, so well planned and constructed by the ancestors of the Earl of Gloucester, was impregnable, but the sheriff and the constable of the castle were both captured. Then started the chaotic looting and burning as Llywelyn’s men rampaged through Caerphilly with swords drawn, under the direction of Llywelyn’s five sons and his adopted son, Llywelyn ap Madoc ap Howel.

News of the attack reached Edward a few days later. His first reaction was to appoint William de Montagu and Hugh Audley, the husband of one of the three Gloucester co-heiresses, to recapture the castle. He then reconsidered and appointed the Earl of Hereford as commander in chief of the expedition to put down Llywelyn’s revolt, and directed both Lords Mortimer to assist him. ‘Go quickly and pursue this traitor, lest from delay worse befall us and all Wales rise against us’ were his instructions to the Marcher lords.
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Roger returned to Wigmore to coordinate the raising of his men. By the end of February the force was ready and had assembled in South Wales, and the attack was ready to begin.
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The campaign against Llywelyn was a demonstration of superior organisation and strength. The Lords Mortimer and the Earl of Hereford marched from the north, while from the south marched John Giffard of Brimpsfield. From the east, Henry of Lancaster (the younger brother of the Earl of Lancaster), William de Montagu and John de Hastings approached with a third contingent. On 12 March the eastern army joined Giffard at Cardiff. The whole of their force, numbering one hundred and fifty mounted men-at-arms and two thousand infantry, went north. They met little real resistance as they pushed on to Caerphilly, and in a short time the castle was relieved.

With the Earl of Hereford and the Mortimers in the north, and pressed from the south, Llywelyn fled north-westwards, taking his army towards the bleakness of Ystradfellte. Here, on the edge of the Great Forest, he and his men prepared to make one final stand. But on the morning of the final attack, 18 March, as the cold light dawned over the valley, Llywelyn declared to his companions that their deaths were futile. ‘I started this conflict,’ he said to them, ‘and I will end it. I will hand myself over on behalf of all my people. It is better that one man should die than the whole race be exiled or perish by the sword.’ His men tried to persuade him not to give himself up, and, inspired by his speech, they declared they were prepared to die alongside him. But his mind was made up. Alone, in full armour, he rode down from the mountain to meet the English. There he surrendered in the presence of the Earl of Hereford, Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, and John de Hastings.

Roger and the other English lords were impressed with the nobility of
the man and his brave gesture. His rebellion was over, a hundred of his men were arrested by the English, but Roger saw no reason to exact revenge. He understood why the man had taken arms. Indeed, he and the earl agreed that they would speak to the king on his behalf.
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They took Llywelyn to the earl’s castle of Brecon, from which the earl wrote to Edward, urging him not to sentence Llywelyn until they had been able to discuss his fate. Then they rode with him and his family to London. Roger and Llywelyn, both being of princely Welsh blood, and both being literate, intelligent and military-minded men, became friends. The list of Llywelyn’s possessions recovered by the English from Llandaff Cathedral includes seven books in French and Welsh, including a copy of the
Roman de la Rose
, and jewellery and armour, as well as his Welsh chairs and charters and muniments. A few years later, a similar, albeit more extensive, list would be compiled of Roger’s possessions.

Roger and Hereford were at court by 21 April. He or the earl may well have been instrumental in having Payn de Turberville replaced by John Giffard of Brimpsfield. As for Llywelyn himself, both the earl and Roger did indeed speak to the king on his behalf, and they succeeded in causing the penalty of death, which in normal circumstances would certainly have been imposed, to be commuted to one of imprisonment in the Tower. Nor did Roger’s assistance to the man and his family stop there. In November it was at Roger’s request that the king ordered John Giffard to take action to protect Llywelyn ap Madoc ap Howel, adopted son of Llywelyn Bren, who was being attacked by Englishmen in reprisal for the war.
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Roger, it seems, was a man who remained loyal to those who had earned his friendship. Just how loyal would be shown later.

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The famine worsened. One clerk wrote of the conditions in 1316 in the following words:

After Easter the dearth of corn increased. Such scarcity has not been seen in our time in England, nor heard of for a hundred years … a great famine appeared, and after the famine came a severe pestilence, of which many thousands died in various places. I have even heard it said by some that in Northumbria dogs and horses and other unclean things were eaten … Alas poor England! You who once helped other lands from your abundance, now poor and needy are forced to beg. Fruitful land is turned into a saltmarsh; the inclemency of the weather destroys the fatness of the land; corn is sown and tares are brought forth … Spare, O Lord, thy people!
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As the country starved, tensions which had remained dormant for many years resurfaced. In Bristol, a long-running disagreement between the constable of the town, Bartholomew de Badlesmere, and the townsfolk once again erupted. The disagreement concerned the customs of Bristol. Fourteen merchants, including the mayor, claimed to have control of the customs of the town, on behalf of the constable, but this tradition was opposed by a growing number of merchants. The dispute was overseen by justices, men who were not from Bristol and who, it was suspected by the townsmen, were prejudiced in favour of the constable and the fourteen. In the words of the same chonicler who had bewailed the weather and the famine:

The leaders of the community, seeing that their objections were ignored, and that their rights were set aside by prejudice rather than reason, were much distressed as they left the hall where judgements are given, and spoke to the people, saying ‘Judges have come favourable to our opponents, and to our disadvantage admit strangers, from which our rights will be lost forever’. At these words the senseless crowd turned to rioting, and the whole populace trembled from fear of the disorder. Returning once more to the hall, they entered with a large following and there turned their right to wrong. For with fists and with sticks they began to attack those opposed to them, and nearly twenty men that day lost their lives for nothing. A very natural fear seized noble and commoner alike, so that many leaped out of top-storey windows into the street, and seriously injured their legs as they hit the ground.

About eighty men were indicted and were ordered to be taken to Gloucester. But the people of Bristol hid them. The culprits were ordered to be exiled for their non-appearance, but still the people of Bristol protected them. The king repeatedly summoned the people to present the wrongdoers, but they did not do so. They still had not done so by May 1316, more than two years after the original case had been heard.
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Events over the next two months demonstrate how closely the social life of the nobility and regional politics were meshed at this time. In 1316 Bartholomew de Badlesmere and Roger Mortimer were ordered to take action against the townsmen. At the same time, these two men were discussing an alliance between their families. The plan was that Roger’s son and heir, Edmund, who was turning out to be a clever boy, if not a fighting knight, should marry Badlesmere’s infant daughter, Elizabeth. Negotiations took place at Westminster in the spring and, in mid-May, Roger and his household, together with a number of important guests,
made their way to Wigmore to celebrate the wedding. Badlesmere agreed to pay Roger the substantial sum of £2,000 for the marriage.
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At the same time Roger made a settlement of his estates, granting to his executors John de Hothum (recently elected Bishop of Ely) and Philip de Kyme (his steward) the castle and manor of Wigmore, the land of Maelienydd with the castles of Cefnllys and Dinbaud, the land of Cydewain with the castle of Dolforwyn, and the land of Deuddwr, together with the reversion or inheritance of the estates which his mother then held as part of her dower, including Radnor Castle. These the executors were empowered to pass to Edmund. Roger also made the young man the heir to his (Roger’s) mother’s Somerset and Buckinghamshire estates, including Bridgewater Castle. After the business was agreed, it was time for the wedding party to go to the Welsh Marches to hold the ceremony.